Catholic Bishops in the Philippines have said they are 'overcome with grief' after the House of Representatives, the lower house in Congress, overwhelmingly voted in favour of reinstating capital punishment for serious drug offences.
The final vote, which was passed with 216 in favour, 54 against and one abstention, means the bill must now be approved by the Senate.
The bill, submitted on January 11, proposed to restore death by firing squad, hanging and lethal injection as punishment for 21 'heinous crimes'. Some of those crimes, including treason, murder, rape, and violent car theft, were taken out of the legislation by the final reading which approved capital punishment for serious drug offences.
In a statement, the President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, said: 'The House of Representatives has given its consent for the State to kill. We, your bishops, are overcome with grief but we are not defeated nor shall we be silenced.
'We call on all Catholic faithful and all Filipinos who stand for life to continue the spirited opposition to death penalty. We urge Catholic lawyers, judges and jurists to allow the gentleness of the Gospel of Life to illumine their reading and application of the law, so that their service to society as teachers and agents of the law and of justice may bring life. It is indeed that we may have life to the full that the Lord came into our midst. They may have won but it does not mean that they are right.'
In 2006, capital punishment was revoked as a punishment for all crimes.
But the country's controversial President, Rodrigo Duterte, has repeatedly vowed to reinstate the death penalty as part of his 'war on drugs'.
The Catholic Church in the Philippines, with which Duterte has repeatedly clashed, has consistently opposed the reintroduction of capital punishment.
According to the Catholic Herald, more than 8,000 people have been killed by police and unknown suspects since Duterte took office eight months ago, many in incidents involving vigilantes.
